Holy Cows vs. Joyful Sacrifice

In Sunday, I want to begin, Genesis next week, believe it or not, but today I wanted to look at something that I was confronted with by an old warrior in the faith this past week and had quite a very convicting effect on me, and so I want to, I hope you're convicted too. Hebrews chapter 13, Hebrews chapter 13, let me read beginning in verse nine, the writer Hebrews writes, do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, to which those who were thus occupied were not benefited. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest is an offering percent are burned outside the camp.

Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered outside the gate. Hence let us go out to him, outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which has become. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips, that give thanks to his name, and do not neglect doing good and sharing. For with such sacrifice as God is pleased, obey your leaders and submit to them for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, but this would be unprofitable for you. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things, and I urge you all the more to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.

Let us take a moment to pray and ask God's blessing upon this word. For others we come to you today as your people, that you have gathered together supernaturally and brought us into this place, formed this little local church which is a manifestation of the body of Christ all over this globe, given us a love for Christ and a love for one another. Now as we are about to come around your table, the table of the Lord Jesus, and to reenact in a real sense, to renew the covenant that we have entered into, that you brought us into through his blood, we pray that your presence would be manifest here so clearly by the spirit of God making Christ real to our hearts, we pray. Open your word to us and open our hearts to your word in Jesus' name.

Amen. As a teacher in Africa, who, actually at the African Bible College, who was teaching on translation, and some of the difficulties that you face in translating the Bible into various languages, because some of them were having to do that very thing there in the process now. And as you begin to talk about this, he used an example of how difficult it is at times to translate in a meaningful way, figures of speech in the Bible, and he took as his example of the song of Solomon, Solomon's words to his bride, you are like a lily among the thorns. In other words, something to the Hebrew mind and ear, something particularly beautiful and precious to say that to his bride was something that would brighten her eyes and fill her heart with joy.

But the African said to him, but flowers are not beautiful to us. In fact, they're just food for our animals. If we told our wives they were as beautiful as a flower, they would slap us. That wouldn't be a compliment. And so the teacher said, well, what is beautiful to you? And they said cows. And he said cows, you mean your wife would not be insulted if you told her that she was like a cow? Oh, no. And so the way they translated this phrase was, you are like a black cow among the spotted ones. I'd like you husbands to try that on your wife this evening and see how it works. And you see the cow is very important to many people in Africa, especially the Messiah. You've seen the pictures of the Messiah, these fallen, stately people.

They are herders. And by their own confession, they do not stoop to till the ground. They say, why should we scratch the earth when God has given us the cow? And the cow gives us everything that we need. They take the cow's milk and drink it. They drink the blood of the cow for nourishment. They eat the meat of the cow. They use the dung of the cow to build their houses. And I've told that they mix the dung and the urine together form. And when it's once formed and it's hard, there's no smell to it. And it builds a sturdy house. Everything about the cow they use, they even use the urine to purify their vessels. The colabasa, that little gourd that they use to carry liquids in, they dig it out.

And then they cleanse it with cow urine. And then they can pour their milk or juice or anything into it and know that it's pure. Isn't that something? And you're all thinking, well, I'm sure glad I'm not so foolish as to worship cows like the Messiah. Well, you know, Israel worshiped the cow when they came out of Egyptian bondage and they were in the wilderness. And Moses went up on Mount Sinai and he stayed too long from their perspective and they began to say, well, where is this Moses? We don't know if you'll ever come back. And we have needs and who's going to meet our needs. And so they told Aaron, we want you to make us a God. And so Aaron took all of their gold and he formed a golden cow and they bowed down to the cow and worshiped the cow.

They danced before the cow and in fact they had an orgy. It was debauchery and God came down and brought judgment. It's certainly we are not so foolish as to worship a cow. Why do people worship idols? Surely we would never worship idols, would we? Don't be too sure. The Apostle Paul says that greed is idolatry, covetousness. This craving, this driving within us to have more is idolatry. You see, we worship a cow, but we are much more sophisticated. We're not like the Messiah. We're not like the ancient Israel, but we do worship our idols. Covetousness is idolatry. Idolatry occurs when you seek the things of this world more than you seek the God who made the things of this world. And if you do this, if your life is spent in seeking the things of this world rather than the seeking the God who created the things in this world and you are guilty of idolatry.

Our whole culture is built upon consumption. We are a consumer society, aren't we? Everything about us. No longer is it the possession of things that is the mark of success. It is the consumption of things. The real mark of success is how fast can you use up what you have so you can replace it with the latest things. Isn't that true? It's consuming, consuming, consuming. When you talk to missionaries and you ask them if they ever experience culture shock by going to the mission field, they will tell you, most of them will say, yes, I do. It's when I come back to America. When I come home from the mission field, I again see a fresh and in a deeper way and more intense way what the God of America really is because the mall is our temple and consumerism is our God.

We are consumers. In this day that we live in, we are all better at shopping than anything else. It's the greatest skill, the most common skill we have among ourselves. That's what we talk about more than anything else is how we can acquire and consume things. Someone has pointed out that at the end of each century, the last three centuries rather, there has been a revolution. The 1700s ended in a democratic revolution when there was a real end of the monarchies. Then the 19th century, the 1800s, ended in the industrial revolution and the 20th century ended in the consumer revolution. We can actually, it's an amazing thing. If you stop and think about this, those that are old enough, think back 10 years and imagine if you would have ever thought that you would be in the position where you could sit in your living room with a laptop on your lap and your recliner, plug them to the telephone line, and go online and bid and bargain and buy and have delivered to your door anything that your heart desires.

We've got people in the church who buy their cars on the internet. I have to have him stay on his exhibit A. But it is an amazing thing. What consumers we are, the whole face of Eastern Europe has been changed by this. We have won the war, not through military. We won over the east, not through our military, defeat, but through economic defeat. Americans can produce and consume more than any other people in the face of the earth. And every other economy has bowed to that. And we've won the war in that way. Isn't it true that the mall is our temple and consumerism is our God? Sure, it's true. None of us can deny it. In fact, we are so used to it. We breathe this air so often that we're not even seeing it for what it is.

In its own way, in our own way, as a people, we worship a cow. Much more sophisticated than the Messiah or ancient Israel, but we adore things of the world more than we adore the God who provides them. You notice there are no T-shirts around that say that advertise God. Now it's true, some people wear T-shirts with God things on them, but it's not advertising a product. All of the T-shirts, you pay people money. You actually pay good money for hats and T-shirts to advertise other people's products. We look to the producers as the ones who give us what we need. What is God's response to idolatry? What is His response to idol worship? His response to idol worship has always been the same. His response to idol worship is a strong one, and the reason that it is is because God is displaced by idolatry.

That's what we do when we have idol worship. We displace God from his rightful place. God is the only one the Bible says who should receive the worship and adoration and devotion and energy of the heart that we give to so many other things. How does God respond to consumerism in a world like ours today? Sometimes the Bible shows us that you must fight fire with fire. So God responds to consumerism with consumption. You remember the story of the golden calf? Those of you grew up in Sunday's school. Do you remember what happened to the calf? Anybody remember what they did with that calf? They ground it up, the instruction of God, the command of Moses, put it in the water and the people drank it.

They consumed the golden cow that they worship. That was the judgment of God. God's judgment on consumerism is the same way. The people had danced themselves into debauchery, and in fact, if you notice every time people turn to materialism, to the worship of things that always ends up in debauchery, why is that? Well, it's because of the way God made us. God made us to become like that which we worship. God made come like him as we worship him. And second Corinthians chapter 3, it says that it is through our worship of Christ that we get transformed into the very image of Jesus Christ. And whatever you worship, you become like that thing. And if you worship things, you become like the things that you worship, and you begin to treat people like things.

That's exactly what's going on in our culture. We've got a great example of this. For example, we worship sex instead of the God who created it. It's amazing how sex has become so important. There is a very fancy building in New York City that just opened in September called Mosex. It's the Museum of Sex in New York City, and it celebrates what New York has contributed to the sex life of the Americans in recent history. And so we are consumed by sex. And don't say that we're not simply turned the TV on in the evening. Watch a few reality programs. Watch people as they are absolutely in worship of sex and treat one another as sex objects instead of persons. Second Peter chapter 2 verse 14 says that there will be those who come into the church and their eyes are full of, and the English says, full of adultery.

And the Greek says, in full of adulteresses, and what he means by that, he means there are certain men, and he says, these men will come in among you, and their eyes are like this. Every woman they see, they see as an adulteress. They see as a potential participant in sexual sin. Isn't that amazing? Doesn't that describe many people that you know? We are obsessed with it. We worship it. How should we deal with our idolatry, no matter what it is, whether it's things, whether it is pursuits, whether it is some kind of success, how do we deal with our idolatry? Well we fight consumerism by consumption. God has given us this principle quite clearly. He made them consume the golden calf. How do we do this?

Real testament. It's interesting if you look at the sacrificial system when the priest would bring the sacrifice on the day of atonement, the bull, and would slit its throat and offer the sacrifice. They would take the carcass outside of the camp, and then later outside the city, and it would be consumed with fire. God kept showing them this, that the sacrifice was to be totally and completely consumed. The same principle holds today, if covetousness is idolatry, then you must sacrifice the thing that you covet if you want to be rid of that idolatry. You've got to have the latest model of everything. You've got to have the latest car, the latest, this is really tough for me because I'm driving a new car right now, but you like that, you have to have the latest car, the biggest and the best, the latest computer.

You know your computer lasts another five years, and people say, how long will before it will be obsolete? Well, it will never really be obsolete, it's just that it won't be the latest and greatest. Are you into fashion? You've got to have the latest look, the latest shoes, the latest garments. What are you into? What is it that drives you? Latest golf clubs? I went into a golf shop the other day with my son, and I had discovered that you could spend thousands of dollars on new golf clubs. An amazing thing, won't change your game of whip, because it won't change mine. I know that. What are you supposed to do with it? Well, if that is whatever it is, that is your idol. Whatever the idolatry is, then go ahead and wear out of the day clothes, drive an out of day car, take the money that you would have spent on that, and give it as a sacrifice.

Give it as a sacrifice. Live outside the camp, outside of society's acceptance. That's how you consume the idol. You lay down your idol and let it be consumed for the glory of God. Now don't misunderstand, I need to clarify, I always do in these cases, we're under grace, we're under the New Covenant, we're not required to give these sacrifices. It's not a requirement to be right with God for you to sacrifice in this way. You're not required by law to make them, and material things are not evil in themselves. In material things it's not, we don't believe in dualism, but you may need to do it in order to get rid of your idolatry. Remember Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sophia, they sold their property because it was being done by some others and they decided to sell their property, they bought the money and laid it before the apostles and said, here is all of the money for our land.

And Peter's response to them was, why have you lied to the Holy Spirit? When this land was in your possession, it was yours, you didn't have to give it. And when you sold it, the money was yours and you didn't have to give the money, why have you lied to the Holy Spirit? You see, you don't have to do this, it's not necessary to be a believer, to live a life of this kind of sacrifice, but if perhaps you may need to in order to get rid of the idolatry in your life. If you're serious about getting rid of the idol of covetousness, then you may have to sacrifice the idol, whatever it may be. I used to do this cyclically when I was younger, I was into motorcycles, I loved dirt bikes. And what I would do, this was the pattern, I'd go buy me a new motorcycle, one time I bought a bike, my wife was out of town, bought a new motorcycle, ran a new bull taco, and it was a nice bike.

Bright red, brought it home, put it in the living room on the carpet and shined it up, bowed down to it, it was like worship. And of course I got it in the garage before she got home. But what would happen to me was that it would become apparent to me that it was an idol. I couldn't think about anything else. It was on my mind when I went to sleep, it was on my mind when I woke up, and then I'd have to repent. And I would sacrifice my idol. And then a few months later I would think I could handle it now and I'd go buy me another brand new motorcycle and do the same thing. Maybe you need to make a sacrifice in order to get rid of the idolatry in your heart. God can do without your sacrifice, you know that.

He doesn't need it. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the riches of every mine. Jesus took five loaves of fishes, five loaves and two fishes and he fed five thousand. He doesn't need it, does he? He doesn't need our sacrifice. But perhaps we need to make a sacrifice. Maybe you need to make this kind of sacrifice. King David said when he went to offer a sacrifice to God because of the curse that it fell in the land because he counted the people. He wanted to rely on the resources of the people instead of the resources of God. And so there was a plague that was sweeping the land and he went to offer a sacrifice to God at a certain place and the man who owned the place, the threshing floor, he said to the man, I want to buy this threshing floor, I want to buy an animal to sacrifice to God.

And he tried to give it to King David. And David said, shall I offer a sacrifice that cost me nothing? And the answer was no. Shall I offer a sacrifice that cost me nothing? We often sacrifice what we have left over. That's how we think of it. I think some people do have this mindset. You know, the Bible is very clear that my giving, for example, is I'm supposed to give my first of the first fruit. That's the first commitment I have is giving. First commitment I have is to give to the work of the Lord and then doing that for 30 years. So I can say it without blessing. I believe that's true. I believe it's biblical. I believe it's the blessing of the Christian life. That's my first commitment is giving to the work of Christ.

Sometimes what we do is we simply want to give what's left over. So I figure out my overhead and all my everything that I have and I use up all my resources and if I have some left over, then I give it away and give it to somebody. I've always given away my computers and my cars when I get through with them. What I got to say is that is no sacrifice because I use them up and then I give them away. That's not a sacrifice. A sacrifice is when it costs me something and if we want to rid ourselves of that clean to things of this world, then I need to identify what those things are that mean so much to me, that I seek more than I seek God and ask myself am I willing to sacrifice for Christ? Am I willing to go outside the camp as a writer of Hebrews says?

The same thing here in this text in Hebrews and that is not only does he tell us to sacrifice the cow but there must be a replacement of the cow. The cow must not only be consumed but it has to be replaced, ultimately it is not just the things that must be sacrificed, it is the person. It's why it seems to some of you as you hear this stuff you go, but this is nuts. It's because before you will ever sacrifice things you have to sacrifice yourself, your person. It's laying down yourself before God. The person must be sacrificed and this is true of the atonement. A person had to be sacrificed. The sacrifice of cows could never free sinners and year after year in the Old Testament, they offered cows upon cows upon cows and the blood was shed and the blood was sprinkled and their carcass was burned, but people were never set free from the guilt of their sin and from their self-centeredness.

The blood of bulls and goats and cows could not free people from their guilt and the power of sin. What will free us from the power of sin and the guilt of sin? There's no power in the blood of the cow. All it is is a picture. It just points us to what it is that will give us freedom. It's what we celebrate this morning at the Lord's table. It's a person, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally Jesus came after all those cows were sacrificed and the blood was sprinkled. The carcass is burned up. Finally the one to whom it pointed came. You remember what John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, something better than a cow, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Jesus is the sacrifice. He is the Lamb of God and it is because that he came as the Lamb of God that he was led outside the city gates. He was led outside the city gates. Think of this. The holy one is removed from the holy place. The holy place was at the center of the city. But he was led out of the city. The holy one was led out of the city. In the middle ages the Muslims came in and they put a cemetery at the eastern side of Jerusalem. The reason they did that was they heard that the Jewish Messiah was going to enter into the city through an eastern gate. And they wanted to defile him. So they would not be able to enter into the city. He'd be defiled by this place of death, the cemetery. But guess what?

Jesus is taken to the place of the skull, to gogatha, the symbol of death. The picture of death in there Jesus is taken and he is consumed by the wrath of God. I mean, think of that. He takes the place of the cow. He takes the place of the cow of every idol that men had worshiped. Every sin that had stained their life, the guilt that was upon us. And the power of sin in us and Jesus went to this place of death and he was consumed by the wrath of God. The Son of God and the place of the skull, the unholy according to the Old Testament legislation. It was a place where you would be defiled if you went there. And Jesus was taken there. And in that unholy place, he was consumed by the wrath of God as it fell upon the sin of men that had been placed upon Jesus.

Jesus, the sinless one, became unholy so that unholy people like you and me could become holy. Holy means you're set apart for God. It means you've been cleansed of the point that you could get her into the very presence of the living holy God. And you could do all there. We are so defiled, we're such a defiled people. It's hard not to be, isn't it? It's hard not to be. It's hard not to have your mind filled with anti-God unholy things continually. And yet he became unholy in the eyes of God so that we could become holy. The consumption of all those bulls could not remove the guilt of sin or break the grip of sin. But the consumption of the Holy Son of God in the place of sin has removed my guilt and breaks the hold that sin has a fund.

It's because of the death of Christ that I could actually loosen my grip and sacrifice my holy cows. It's because of him. I could bring the kind of sacrifices that really are pleasing to the Creator. Listen again to these sacrifices that he talks about here in Hebrews chapter 13. Through him then let us continually offer up. Through this one who went outside the camp and was crucified for us. He says through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. You ever think about it that when you come here on Sunday mornings that you come to worship with God's people to sing praises and that it is a sacrifice to God. That when what you sing what comes out of your mouth is actually the expression of your heart.

That that is an expression that that is a sacrifice that is well pleasing to God. Isn't that something? And you know maybe your voice is torn up. You know maybe the sound is really ripped up as it comes out of your throat because you don't really have a great voice. But you know if it's the expression of your heart if you praise God through singing it is a pleasing sacrifice to him. And then he goes on the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name and do not neglect doing good and sharing for with such sacrifices. God is pleased. You know what being a Christian is. You know what salvation is. Salvation is when God changes you from a consumer to a giver. Jesus said in John 10 all those before me were thieves and robbers.

They came to kill and destroy but I came to give life and to give it more abundantly. What kind of life is this Jesus? This is abundant life. What is abundant life? Abundant life is described for us in Philippians 2. It's when a person is so full and so complete and has so much life in them that they can pour themselves out into the lives of other people. I want to ask you something just think about this you've lived long enough and you've seen a lot of people. You know anybody happier than the person who has come to the place where they are really a giver. When they can freely with an open heart give themselves and their resources to others. Aren't those the happiest people you know the happiest people I know.

It's not the hoarders. It's not the consumers. It's not the people who are working every angle to get every little thing they can and to conserve it. Judy was cleaning the garage yesterday and I was watching and I come out and checked on her every once in a while and she was going through all kinds of things and man we had all these old pictures. It's a bunch of old pictures of Mitch and I got a picture of Mitch and Pat Patterson that he would just. I'm somebody I'm going to show it. They're not here are they? Good. Someday I'm just going to show this on the overhead. It's just an amazing wonderful picture. I was looking at all those people that have known for so long for over 30 years and watched them in the Christian life and how they lived their Christian life.

And I thought as I went through there these are the people that I've seen over the years have been so happy and full of life. It's people who've given themselves away. You know living is giving and giving is living. It's really true. That's what the Christian life's all about God has equipped you. He's given you a spiritual gift so you can give. You know that and you think, well, I don't have the gift of giving. Oh no, that's not what I'm talking about. The Bible says first Peter chapter four that a spiritual gift is your ability to give away the grace of God in a special way. You were made to be a giver. You were made to dispense the grace of God that is poured into your life. Remember when Jesus said in John 737, if any man is thirsty, you feel needy.

He says come to me and drink because he who is believing in me. The one who's trusting in me and receiving from me out of his belly will flow rivers of living waters. You see what he's saying? There is no end of this resource. Are you afraid to give yourself a way or to give away your resources or to give away your self and ministry because you're going to you're going to dilapidate, you're going to you're going to you're going to lose all your resources. Is that what you're afraid of? I want to tell you it can't happen. The more you give yourself away, the more God will fill you up. It's exactly what 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 says that if you want to give it, he will supply it. You want to give he'll supply you want to give ministry he'll supply.

You want to give away grace in the form of material things. God will supply. That's what the Christian life's about. It's about giving. You know why we want to build a building? It's just so we have a dispensing arena. We want a place where we can give away the grace of God in all its forms. That's what we want. Because that's what the Christian life is. Miriam, next week we're going to give you a little letter. I'll tell you about her trip to Uganda that she's going to go on in December for six months to teach children and some widows and ladies and do various things in Uganda. And what I think you will hear, what you will catch real quick, is God has just filled her up so full that she can't help it just keeps leaking out and she can't stop it.

That's how I made this, isn't it? That's what the grace of God is. When you get full of the grace of God, it just flows out all over. It just spills out. And the spiritual gift is simply the ability to direct that grace of God in a particular way into needy lives. We are not consumers. We are conduits. And when we start acting like consumers, oh, it's a terrible thing that happens in the church. All of us have been a Christian very long. You've been through church disputes and fights and I can tell you every single one of them that I've ever been associated with and I've participated. Because when people start staking out their territory and their resources, they want control of something. They don't want to let it go.

What if we all just really believe the message of Jesus that He has transformed us into givers and that His whole plan for our life is that we would learn how to give away the resources that He pours into our lives, material, spiritual, abilities, all those things. He just wants to pour out His grace through us into the lives of other people. And the big thing is this that there is no end to His resources. There's no end to it. It's out of His glorious abundance of His supply that He will allow you to dispense His grace into the lives of other people. You are free. Now you can replace the sacrifice of the cow or the sacrifice of yourself. You can actually give yourself. Isn't that something? I heard a story this past week about a man in the 13th century, a Christian who had been witnessing to Muslims and it was a very threatening, dangerous thing and he did it underground.

Did it over a period of about 30 years. Finally, he was 87 years old. He was going back one more time and he said, this time, I'm not going to do it underground. I want to do it above ground because I want to die preaching the gospel. And he did. He was killed. With the cause of the gospel, he planned to enter into the gates of glory by preaching the gospel openly, by dispensing the gospel without restraint. What a way to go. Oh, that's better than dying on the 19th green. Wouldn't it be better than buying a winnow bego to sign up to go to Uganda for six months? Wouldn't it? All you young people say, sure. When I get there, that's what I want to do. We're givers. That's what we are by nature.

It's what God has created us to be. It's what He's gifted us to be. Jesus said, if you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you lose your life or my sake, you will keep it into eternal life. You, there's an old gospel song says, you can't outgive God. You cannot beat God giving. Don't be afraid to give yourself away. Don't be afraid to be a dispenser of the grace of God. The right of Hebrew says, so let us go out to Him outside the camp. This is absolute foolishness what I'm saying in the eyes of the world. What a foolish thing to raise your kids and encourage them to give their life to missionary work somewhere where they're going to live in horrible life conditions and never be known by anybody and just off there where nobody's ever going to know about them and give their life or the cause of Christ and the cause of the gospel.

What a foolish thing to do. But this is the wisdom of God. It's the wisdom of God. Not just things like food and clothes and cars and computers, but God says, bring yourself. You may think, well, I don't really have any, there's just nothing about me that I could do anything for anybody here around the world. Oh, if you have Christ, there's, there's plenty. There's all kinds of needs in this world. I read in the paper the other day that there are five nations, the coming wave of the AIDS epidemic is going to, they're really afraid they're going to overwhelm Russia, Ethiopia, China and two other nations. Like they say, it's going to be so devastating, they're afraid that they won't even be able to, to man a standing army, imagine it.

In Ethiopia, there's one doctor for every 250,000 people. You have trouble getting an appointment? This is incredible need for teachers around the world, people who will go and give themselves to teaching. He's been six months of every year, he is a renowned, well-known, respected, theologian who's taught in some of the country's best seminaries. And now for the last 12 years, he goes to Africa for six months out of the year to teach. He says his biggest problem is when he comes home for the, for six months to do research and write and do some teaching here is getting somebody to replace him. I'm telling you, there's incredible needs around the world. And sometimes in churches, it's just amazing to me how we can stumble all over each other and get in each other's way, get mad at each other because we're all wanting to piece of the pie.

This happens especially with people who feel, call to teach or to do some kind of leadership and man, we're all fighting over who's going to get the most exposure, you know, that kind of a thing. What stupidity that is, when there is a whole world out there, there's not one spot on the face of this earth that doesn't need the gospel of Jesus Christ. It doesn't need somebody there to give someone a couple of cold water in the name of Jesus. There are a million orphans in Malawi. Malawi is a pretty small country in Africa. A million orphans, think about this for a minute. There's a small country. Think if there were a million orphans in Northern California, a million orphans. There's the AIDS epidemic.

There are women there that are raising 15, 20, 25 children because nobody else will take them in. All I'm saying is, and I know there are many needs from next door around the block down the street. What I'm saying is you are full of the grace of God and not only are you full of the grace of God that the supply of God's grace is unlimited. It's just a matter of you pointing the dispenser and dispense His grace, engage your life in the work of the ministry, the work of the gospel. What a day this is. Maybe all that sounds way too radical, but you know, you really do need to show yourself that you're not so totally wrapped up in your own interests that God can't use you. Free yourself from idolatry.

I was thinking this past week, sometimes I get so bugged about people who don't aren't consistent attenders to worship services and those kinds of things. And I thought about some of the little peddly little stuff that I get upset about. And then I thought about the seriousness of what's going on in the world today and how God could use us and how we could, how we, there is just no end. There is absolutely no end of targets for the grace of God. There just isn't. There's people all around you that need the dispensing of the grace of God. In the simple little words, the right of you says, go outside the camp. In other words, don't stay in the center of everybody's approval of this world. Don't do it the way the world says, this is the right thing to do, but he says, go outside the camp and through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.

That is the fruit of the lips that get thanks to his name and do not neglect doing good and sharing, sharing, sharing for with such sacrifices. God is well pleased for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life or my sake and the gospel's sake will save it. Jesus showed us how to do this, that living is giving and giving is living, and the way to really live is to give yourself away. The idolatrous cow has to be replaced, not just by the sacrifice of the things that we tend to bow down to, but with ourselves. Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 15 that we had to practice the mana principle in our giving. The mana principle is this, that no matter how much they gathered, they didn't have too much, and no matter how little they gathered, they always had enough.

What are you saying there is a God as a supplier? You may only have the capacity to make $20,000 a year. You may only have the capacity to do some little simple thing in ministry, or you may have incredible capacity for creating wealth and resources, or you may be highly skilled at teaching, or exhorting, or giving, or whatever, but you know what, there's not a believer in the stream. There's not a Christian in this room who has not equipped to give, and he was not made and remade to give. That's what life is. Life is giving. That's what you were created for, think about it. He created this in his image, and who is he? He's the giver. He's the giver. One of his titles in Scripture, this is a God who gives to all men, richly.

That's his title. He gives to us abundantly, and we are made as an image. Find yourself and give yourself away. In America, the whole thing is find yourself. You need to find yourself. We tell them, we psychologists, we tell wives, you need to leave your husband and go find yourself. The Bible says, find yourself and give yourself away. Give yourself. You'll find life indeed, real life. We're going to come to the Lord's table in these symbols. What these two symbols are, this bread, this loaf, and this cup are symbols of God giving Himself to us and for us. And we consume it. The reason we consume it is because it is by that act we are saying by that action we receive this gift, this grace that has been given to us in Christ Jesus.

We are saying, when you take this cup, you are proclaiming to the world that you believe in this Jesus who came into the world, became a man and died on a cross for our sins, shed His blood so that we might be saved. You're saying that you believe in Him. You're trusting in Him. He's the object of your worship. Be a worshiper of the living Christ this week. Ask God to show you ways that you maybe need to sacrifice and maybe you need to lay down your idol on His altar and let it be consumed and then give yourself, it's your reasonable service of worship. That's all it is. It's just sanity. Mary I'm going to Uganda for six months. It's just sanity. That's all it is. It's just reasonable. It's just her reasonable service of worship.

That's all it is. Let's pray and then we'll come to the Lord's table. You men can come forward as I'm praying. Our Father, we thank You for the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. We thank You, O God, that You have equipped us by giving us eternal life, by implanting the life of Jesus Christ in us through faith and as a result of that life we have faith. Because you've implanted that life within us, you have specially equipped us to be givers, to be dispensers of your grace and your life. There's so many needy people around, so many people who need someone to care more about them and their need than they care about their own need. And that's why Paul says, have this mind among yourself, this was in Christ Jesus.

Look out for the needs of others more than your own. God help us to be Christ like I pray. Help us oh God, the repent of our idolatry. Help me to repent of my own idolatry. Help us oh God to see the value, incredible value of sowing seed that's going to reap a crop that has such great value that we cannot measure in this life. We pray You'd make us into givers and sores for the glory of Christ we pray. Amen. You may be seated. You may be seated. Brothers, you're going to read the book of Revelation, Revelation 21-22, chapter 2. Is Revelation 21? Now I have to all under have in the New World. So the first heaven and the first earth that has to lighten. Also there was no more seed. And I John saw the Holy Spirit, literally, coming down out of heaven from God.

The pariah of the plot, the dawn of the world, and I heard a lot of voice in God and said, He holds the talent of God with me and He will dwell with me and they shall be those people. God himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear in their eyes. There shall be no more death, no sorrow, no time. There shall be no more name to the one thing things shall have to light. And He who will walk, who is sat on the top, from He said, He holds, I make all things miserable. He said to me, right, these words are true and faithful. And he said to me, he has done, I am the top of the evil nature, beginning in the end. I will get out of the town of the water of the light. Breathe into the town of the earth.

He will overcome some of the hair of all things. And I will be his God and he shall be my son. With a cowardly, unmovading, a formidable, murderous, sexually devoid, sorcery and violence. And all violence will have their part in the late, which burns with fire and windstone, which is the same death. And one of the seven angels, who had the seven bullets still, with the seven last legs, seemed to be the top of him, saying, come, I will show you the blind man's life. He may carry you away in the spirit of a great time now. And he shall be the great city of all those who live so long. They're sending out of heaven to God. Having the glory of God, the light, and what's the light, the most precious stone, and the jamb for stone, clear as crystal.

Also, she had a great and high wall of twelve legs, and twelve angels of the jigs, and minions written on them, which are the names of the twelve fights of the children of Israel. Three days for these, three days on the run, three days on the south, and three days on the west. Now, the wall of the city, that's twelve foundations, they're not the names of the standard poplar of the land. And he who's called with me, had a whole new defensive city, that gave him a fault. He could have laid out in the square, which is the light that was laid in the spread, and he mentioned this city, that we, at twelve thousand per month, is the light, breath, and high for people. And he mentioned this wall, one hundred and forty-four seasons, according to the measure of the mantle, that there's an angel.

His expression of this wall was a jacker, and the city was assured of living by a clear block. On the edge of the wall, these were the ones that were all kind of precious stones. The first foundation was jacker. The second staff died. The third staff didn't. The fourth emerald, the fifth sardine, the fifth sardine, instead of the Christmas light, the eighth barrel, the ninth totem, the tenth, the sixth, the elevatth, the eighth devil, and the twelf until maintenance. The twelfth değil, the twelfth whole, the thirteenth, the thirteenth, the twelfth focal centimeter, the thirteenth- theMaster temple caboeth at a land-like temple. With the heavenly celebration and the heavenly plenty as soon as the British rejoiced in the rampard and turned to the ramparts life.

In a nation to go to our days shall walk in its life. And the King will be earth-printing your glory in honor to it, that he shall not be shed at all by day. There shall be no night in it. And they shall bring the glory of the honor that they have given to it. But there shall find no need to enter it in that the final fifth or final, an abomination or a lie. But only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Revelation 22, and he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.

The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. They shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. Then he said to me, these words are faithful and true, and the Lord God of the Holy Prophets sent his angels to show his servants the things which must shortly take place. Behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. Now I, John, saw and heard these things, and when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things.

Then he said to me, see that you do not do that, for I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren, the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book worship God. And he said to me, do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him be righteous still. He who is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.

But outside are dogs and sorcerers, and sexually immoral, and murders, and idolaters, and whoever loves the practices, loves and practices alive. I, Jesus, have sent my angels to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root in the offspring of David, the bright and morning star, and the spirit and the bride say, come and let him who hears say, come and let him who thirst come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. If anyone takes away the words of this book or the prophecies of this book, God shall take away his part from the book of life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

He who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming quickly. Amen, even so, come Lord Jesus, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. We take this loaf and we take it because it represents the body of Jesus Christ who is given for us. He became a man like us. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh to where we were. And we take this cup because it is the new covenant in his blood. It represents the new covenant we live under now because Jesus has paid the price for our sins. We have entered into relationship with God through faith, simply believing, trusting, and the living Christ who gave his life for us. I'm going to pray over these and then we're going to protect. Our Father, we thank You for this bread that represents the body of Christ, His incarnation, His giving of Himself, the one who did not think it, being equal with God, a thing to be grasped and held onto that was willing to take on the form of a servant and come in the likeness of men and to become sin for us and hang on across in our place.

We partake of this cup. We thank You for this cup because it represents the new covenant in His blood, this new relationship we have with You through faith in Jesus Christ. So we partake of this Father and we give You thanks for it because of our faith in Christ alone, who is the only one who can save us and deliver us from our own selfishness and sinfulness and guilt. We give You thanks and Father, we pray that even as we do this, it would be in our heart like a renewing of this covenant that You have made with us. We thank You in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's protect together.